Fascinating Facts About Space

Space really is an amazing place, so impress your family and friends by knowing all these cool space facts! They will probably impress you too!

Modern aerospace started with Sir George Cayley in 1799. He designed an aircraft with a fixed wing and a horizontal and vertical tail. (This ended up being the characteristics of a modern airplane! Who would of thought that an intended space craft would turn into an airplane?!)

In the USA, the aerospace industry employs approximately 500,000 people across the nation! Now is that considered a lot bearing in mind that the USA has a population of 311,591,917!

A whole 2% accounts for the sales of US aerospace products in the gross domestic product.

US aerospace industry has the largest trade surplus of any manufacturing sector in the year 2007 with a foreign trade surplus of $61 million! Now that is definitely is a lot!

An unprotected human can survive up to 1 minute 30 seconds in space with no permanent damage to their body! That is pretty cool!

If two pieces of metal come together in space, then they will stick togetherâ?¦forever! You may be thinking this could be a problem then, how do they travel to space in a metal aircraft? On earth the atmosphere puts a layer of oxidized material between two metal surfaces; letâ??s say stainless steel springs, but in space this does not happen! But as the stainless steel springs have already been on earth they will have had the oxidized material already on!

It is a fact that we know more about space than the deep oceans! You would think that it would be the other way round!

If you shouted on top of your voice in space, the person next to you wouldnâ??t hear you! Hmm that could be interesting!

When Apollo 11â??s lunar module landed on the moon, it was just 20 seconds worth of fuel which remained in the tank! That was close!

It will cost $200,000 for the cheapest ticket to space on the Virgin Galactic! So that means if I sell my house I will almost be able to afford it!

The footprints and tyre prints on the moon which have been left from astronauts will be there forever, this is because that there is no wind in space!

If you weigh 100kg on earth, then on mars you would only weigh 38kg! Now does that count as a diet?!

George Banbury is a self acclaimed space geek who loves to learn about the fascinations of the galaxy. He currently works at http://springs.aero/ designing aerospace springs.